11 November 2005 - Citibank takes back no-fee promise
The Sheet
Citibank’s website is currently promoting Ready Credit with a six-month introductory interest rate, and no application, monthly or transaction fees. Customers can transfer up to $25,000 of their credit balances and only "pay interest on what you use". Customers who responded to a similar promotion late last year, offering a lifetime rate of 4.9 per cent on transfers and a standard rate of 15.49 per cent, are now being stung for fees. The small print of the terms and conditions said: "No fees apply to balance transfer transactions." On 31 October Citibank informed customers that the standard rate for Ready Credit was cut to 12.99 per cent while on 30 November a credit facility fee of $160 would be imposed. The fee is waived if $1,000 is spent between now and Christmas plus there is $20 cash back for every $500 spent by the year-end.

11 November 2005 - Macquarie Bank wants more ATMs
Financial Review
Macquarie Bank wants to take over most of the Australian ATM network by buying up to 7000 terminals from the major banks in deal worth more than $200 million. In a bid to find profitability from the difficult, but ever expanding, ATM market through the creation of a large scale centralized system, Macquarie wants to add to its 2400 terminals purchased in July from the Bank of Queensland. Average monthly withdrawals from ATMs this year are $10.6 billion, up from $6.9 billion five years ago and far exceeding Eftpos transactions of $6.6 billion. The proposal is believed to have received a lukewarm reaction from the major banks.

11 November 2005 - Customers complain more often about banks
Sydney Morning Herald
The number of disputes between banks and their customers lodged with the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman has increased by four per per cent in 2004/05 after two years of decline. Consumer finance and especially credit cards continued to be the number one category of complaints with unauthorized transactions and maladministration (including no proper assessment of the customers ability to repay) the major areas of dispute.

10 November 2005 - Extra competition hits major banks
Herald Sun
The four major Australian banks have lost approximately one per cent of market share to smaller competitors and suffered a fall in interest rate margins, according to a survey of profitability in the Australian banking sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers. All four major banks are feeling the heat of renewed competition with average reduction in interest margins of 0.1 percentage points according to Michael Codling of PwC.

10 November 2005 - NAB to repay customers $21M
News.com.au
National Australia Bank will repay some business and investment loan customers over $21 million for overcharging errors. The errors date back to 1992 on fixed-rate, interest-only loans. Executive director and chief executive of NAB's Australian operations, Ahmed Fahour, said the problem had been fixed and the bank had provisioned $18 million for this operation.

10 November 2005 - Low yield mortgages sustain National’s market share
The Sheet
NAB said it stabilised its market share in housing lending in Australia, reporting growth in advances of 12.4 per cent. The bank said housing lending growth mainly occurred within what it described as "basic loans", including "Homeside plain & simple", "Redstar 100% offset loans" and "Redstar intro loans". These are relatively cheap and presumably less profitable home loan products. To that extent, NAB’s defensive strategy in the home loan market stands in contrast to that of, say, St George Bank, which has worked hard to reduce reliance on low yield basic loans and revved up the volume of sale of higher yielding home loans (such as low doc and no deposit loans).

10 November 2005 - Morgan’s pay down as Westpac lags behind
Financial Review
Westpac chief David Morgan’s total remuneration fell almost 10% to $7.4 million in 2005, whilst St George’s chief executive Gail Kelly received a big 12.5% increase to $4.5 million. Westpac's home loan growth significantly lagged the industry over the year to September 30. The bank forecast losses in its joint cheque processing venture and said increased competition would continue to affect its margins.

10 November 2005 - Westpac increases home loan marketing and goes “experiential”
Sydney Morning Herald
Westpac’s budget for home loan marketing will increase by 10-20 per cent this year, said product and marketing boss Tim Harrington as the bank tries to claw back lost ground from its rivals. The marketing strategy is moving away from rate-based advertising and using its retail outlets to woo customers with "experiential" marketing strategies including giving away coffees, newspapers and having advisors on-hand to assist home buyers sift through the paper’s property sections.

10 November 2005 - First home owners lured back as house prices ease
The Age
The Bureau of Statistics reports that new loans to owner-occupiers leapt three per cent in September to a record $8.9 billion, 17 per cent more than the year before as house prices fell by almost one per cent across Australia. The average value of first home loans also rose to a record $219,200 and the number of loans issues to first home buyers stayed above the long term average for the seventh consecutive month.

10 November 2005 - Rents at bargain basement levels
The Age
Renting makes better financial sense than buying now with house prices likely to remain static for the next few years and rents at "bargain basement" levels. In Sydney the median middle-ring house price is $560,000, with average rent on such a house $310.00. Comparing mortgage repayments to rent for the first year leaves the renter more than $31,000.00 in front after 12 months

9 November 2005 - Fees for buyers advocates misconceived
The Age
Many buyers advocates are seeking sales commissions structured in the same fashion as those charged by real estate agents, where many advocates used to work. A typical commission charged by an advocate is around two per cent, while some also charge an additional fee of $1000. This structure does not seem to create an incentive for the advocate to ensure the price paid for the buyer is low, and may create an incentive to agree to a high price.

8 November 2005 - Perth property market runs hot
News.com.au
Data published by Australian Property Monitors suggests that nationwide, average house prices remain fairly stable. The APM composition adjusted measure quoted by the RBA shows that Australia wide, prices fell by 0.8 per cent in the September 2005 quarter, but increased by 0.5 per cent over the year to September. Separate data compiled by Residex and quoted by the RBA show a similar trend. APM found that the median house price in Sydney dropped by 1.5 per cent over the September quarter and fell by 4.3 per cent over 12 months. House prices in Sydney are down by 8.9 per cent from the peak recorded in the March 2004 quarter, according to APM.
House prices are also in decline in Canberra (down by two per cent over the last quarter). However, house prices increased by more than two per cent in Perth in the last quarter, with prices for flats jumping by six per cent.

8 November 2005 - Westpac wary of NSW
Financial Review
Westpac chief executive David Morgan said the bank would tread cautiously in the NSW housing market. He said he was not comfortable with the health of the housing market in NSW, reiterating the bank's policy of steering clear of "low-quality" loans.

8 November 2005 - Average home loan loss doubles in a year
The Sheet
The size of the average home loan loss suffered by banks - based on claims paid by lenders mortgage insurance company PMI in Australia and New Zealand - doubled to $44,000 in the nine months to September 2005, up from $22,000 in the nine months to September 2004. The incidence of loans in default is no worse than reported by PMI in recent quarters, with the ratio steady at a tiny 0.13 per cent of the almost one million home loans on which PMI provides mortgage insurance. And the ratio of loans in default to claims paid on such loans is also trivial, with fewer than five per cent of loans in default – all of 56 individual loans – leading to claims being paid.

7 November 2005 - Boomers favour investment property
Seven.com.au
A survey commissioned by Mortgage Choice found that one third of "baby boomers" said they plan to buy an investment property over the next year. The survey of Australians aged between 40 and 55 found 36 per cent of respondents intended to purchase an investment property in the next 12 months, with 46 per cent of these planning to do so for the first time. Almost half said they would fund the purchase through equity, 21 per cent said they would use a line of credit.

7 November 2005 - Symond warns of decline in house prices
Financial Review
John Symond, managing director of Aussie Home Loans, predicted that real estate prices in eastern Australia would fall by between five per cent and 10 per cent. Symond advised owners of investment properties making plans to sell to do so now. Symond also warned that first-home buyers who had borrowed almost the full value of their property were vulnerable to defaulting on their loans if interest rates rise next year, as some forecasters predict.